Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Sure, there have been plenty of biographies about the ol’ perfesser, but what about fictional accounts of the daffy Stengel? Try Troy Soos’ historical baseball fiction, Murder at Ebbets Field, one of several in a series of mysteries featuring utility journeyman player Mickey Rawlings. (My profile on Soos appeared in the Summer, 1998 issue of […]
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from the Scooter Chronicles blog. Upshot: As far as baseball books go, I can see why this ranks amongst the best. I don’t know from experience, or from reading anyone that has said so, but I get the feeling that it’s a very accurate description of what life could have been like playing for a […]
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From the Sports Locker blog.
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Per a blog about baseball cards.
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Following the Home Run Derby before the All-Star Game, The Toronto National Post posted this story comparing Josh Hamilton, who had 28 homers in the first round of the competition, to the fictional Roy Hobbs. The writer goes on to list a few more baseball flicks in the spirit of the hallowed event.
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The Los Angeles Times published this fascinating piece on a lost art/tradition. In 1993, I was working on a manuscript about the Mets season. There were high expectations since the team had pulled out the stops to acquire some big names like Bobby Bonilla, Bret Saberhagen, and Eddie Murray, but it turned out to be […]
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In today’s New York Times — and with the closing of both new York stadiums after the 2008 season — Nick Bunkley writes about the demolition of Tiger Stadium in his “Detroit Journal.” As the last game in the old Michigan ballpark drew near, Tom Stanton wrote about growing up an intergenerational Tigers fan in […]
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From The Juice blog on Baseball Toaster: Let’s start with a baseball book. You should read Buzz Bissinger’s (yeah, that guy) Three Nights in August. It’s not a perfect book, as Bissinger’s dislike of Moneyball elements demonstrate. Even if you have a sabermetrical view of the game, it is hard to deny the charms of […]
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His name might not be as familiar as David Halberstam or Maury Allen or other prolific baseball authors, but Jules Tygiel was a master of the social importance of the game. He wrote several volumes about Jackie Robinson, but managed to keep his material fresh and pertinent. Tygiel passed away yesterday at the age of […]
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The Dodger Hall of Famer died this date in 1993. His autobiography was also turned into a made-for TV movie, starring Paul Warfield as the catcher and Louis Gossett Jr. as his physical therapist. The Amazon Report on Roy Campanella: It’s Good to Be Alive
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The New York Times published this piece in today’s issue regarding the appeal of the Mets farm club, the brooklyn Cyclones, in the face of the big league team’s troubles of late. In the meantime, watch this unusual situation from last night’s game between the Cyclones and the Staten Island Yankees. The Amazon Report on […]
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who turns 100 today. For someone who played in the 1930s, Werber had some decent pop in his bat. He broke in with the 1930 NY Yankees, as a teammate of Babe Ruth. The best of his 11 seasons came in 1934, when he had career highs in runs scored (129), hits (200), doubles (41), […]
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A lot has been written over the last couple of days (in the New York area at least) about the firing of Mets manager Willie Randolph. It’s not so much that he was fired as much as how the deed was done. How terrible, the sports pundits cried, to do it in the middle of […]
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The All-Star outfielder for the Tigers, Expos, and White Sox turns 60 today. LeFlore wrote about his experiences in prison in Breakout: From Prison to the Big Leagues, which was turned into One in a Million: The Ron LeFlore Story, one of those terrible ABC Made for TV movies, starring Levar Burton as the ballplayer. […]
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From BaseballGB, which takes a look at the game from across the pond.
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The author of the watershed book on the Black Sox Scandal died yesterday at the age of 88. Asinof published Eight Men Out in 1963; and was released as a John Sayles film in 1988, starring John Cusak, David Strathairn, Charlie Sheen, D.B. Sweeny, and Gordon Clapp, Christopher Lloyd, John Mahoney, Michael Werner, Studs Terkel, […]
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The future Hall of Famer hit home run #600 yesterday, joining Bonds, Aaron, Ruth, Mays, and Sosa. No doubt new books are in the offing. There are already several titles, many for kids, which is fine because Griffey seems like a good role model (comparatively speaking). You never hear his name associated with drugs, drinking, […]
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is available on Amazon.com,
In a former life, I was the sports and features editor for a weekly New Jersey newspaper, where I hosted an award-winning bog about Jews and Sports.
I did a profile piece on the legendary cartoonist Arnold Roth and he was very generous in immortalizing me in this caricature.
My article on Sandy Koufax in the 1965 World Series appears in
My article on the later biographies of Babe Ruth appears in
My article on the Mets’ 1969 postseason appears in
Profiles of several Jewish baseball figures appear in
* Life imitates art
June 20, 2008
In the current issue of ESPN The Magazine, Rick Reilly writes about a high school pitcher who deliberately threw at a home plate umpire, instructing his catcher to let the ball go on through. You can read that piece here. The scenario is eerily reminiscent of a scene from Philip Roth’s The Great American Novel […]
Tagged as: baseball fiction, Philip Roth, Rick Reilly, The Great American Novel
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